City prepares for next flood as cleanup continues

Jason van Rassel, Calgary Herald02.10.2014

The city has completed three of six ‘critical’ projects to repair riverbanks eroded during the June flood, including along Memorial Drive near Prince’s Island Park, and expects the final three to be complete before the spring thaw.

Burrell said the city has emerged stronger, in part because it has held onto equipment it bought in response to last year’s flood, such as generators and pumps.

“We have a lot more capacity than we did previously,” he said.

Burrell added local authorities will be able to draw upon relationships with suppliers established during last year’s emergency for necessities such as rock and heavy equipment.

In the aftermath of the flood, the city identified 185 projects necessary to either repair or reinforce infrastructure such as bridges, roads, parks, riverbanks and stormwater outfalls.

Among those projects are six “critical” riverbank sites that suffered significant erosion last June and must be shored up to prevent further wear, Stewart said.

“Of those six locations, three are complete and the other three will be complete prior to runoff,” said Stewart.

The three completed projects are along the Bow River: near Home Road N.W., along Memorial Drive near Prince’s Island Park and in Inglewood south of the Cushing Bridge.

As well, there are three more sites along the Bow River where work is continuing to reinforce the riverbanks: Memorial Drive and 19th Street N.W., near Deerfoot Trail and Douglasdale Boulevard S.E. and downstream from Diamond Cove.

Calgary MLA Kyle Fawcett, the province’s associate minister of recovery and reconstruction of southwest Alberta, said the government has already spent $12 million on flood mitigation projects along the Bow River.

“Across the province, communities have been looking at what happened last spring and starting to pay a little bit closer attention to what they might need to put in place in their own communities,” Fawcett said.

The province has hired a consulting engineer for each of Alberta’s major watersheds, who will study the environmental impacts of any proposed mitigation projects before they’re approved, Fawcett said.

“What we do want to make sure is that we know of all of those consequences and that we approve the projects in a way that will make sure that we mitigate against any sort of negative consequences upstream or downstream,” he said.

The province is also financing research into environmental impacts of a dry dam on the Elbow River upstream from Calgary and a feasibility study on proposed tunnel that would divert flood waters from the Elbow around the city.

“I don’t think we should be under any illusions that they will be in place for this spring,” Fawcett said.

A citizens’ group that represents several Calgary communities said authorities are doing a better job communicating their progress than they initially did. The important thing now is ensuring reconstruction and mitigation efforts stay on pace.

“We want to see timelines being created and more clarity on which projects go ahead and when they can be completed,” said Emma May, president of the Calgary River Communities Action Group.

The group believes longer-term, large scale projects will be more effective than interim flood mitigation ideas such as dredging the Glenmore Reservoir, May said.

Because of the time and expense involved in a project like the flood diversion tunnel, it’s vital the provincially-funded feasibility study get underway and is completed as soon as possible, she said.

“Everything we’ve seen so far is that it’s probably one of the most effective ways of preventing flooding in downtown Calgary,” said May.

On the recovery front, city officials have issued 145 building permits and have 168 in progress. The city has issued 1,820 trade permits for major repairs such as replacing electrical panels, water heaters and furnaces, with 1,297 more permits in progress.

“We’re not there yet,” said Gord Stewart, the city’s director of recovery.

“We know that there are probably more people who haven’t started rebuilding their homes as have completed them.”

jvanrassel@calgaryherald.com

Twitter: JasonvanRassel

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